by Stephanie L. Ogle
Afros. Funky soundtracks. Outrageous clothes. Black love. Revenge. Fighting against the “establishment”. All of these are ingredients to some of the classic Blacksploitation movies of the 70’s. Baby-boomers could relate to them. Generation X’ers grew up on them and through the years they have become part of African-American culture & history.
Blaxploitation actually became a film genre – it was unique & didn’t neatly fit into any one movie category. In 1971 actor and director Melvin Van Peebles wrote, produced, starred in, and composed the soundtrack for the film Sweet Sweetback´s Badasssss Song. With this movie, the era of black films in Hollywood began.
Black audiences loved the often low-budgeted movies that tended to reinforce some of the negative stereotypes of black women & men. Although many of the films lacked the high octane action we’re now used to seeing in movies today, not to mention that you won’t be seeing any Oscar award winning acting in any of them, they are still entertaining and fun. This era would spawn some of the genre’s memorable greats:
Pam Grier, the queen of Blaxploitation
Jim Kelly, the king of Kung-Fu Blaxploitation
Richard Roundtree
Fred Williamson
Jim Brown
Ron O’neal
Rounding out the Blaxploitation roster is Rudy Ray Moore better known as “Dolemite”. Any of the “Dolemite” movies are a MUST see to the Blaxploitation enthusiast. The comedian turned actor has a following still to this day.
The Blaxploitation crave lasted only until the mid 70’s. Soon after its amazing population, the genre & its actors were criticized to the portrayals of black on the screen. The demand for the end of the exploitation was heard & the era came to an end. Now, you will find television shows eluding to Blaxploitation flicks from the past. You’ll see Hip-Hop/Rap artists (Snoop Dogg) celebrating that Blaxploitation imagery in music videos.
While now, some of the content of the films may seem politically incorrect & offensive to some, they are part of us & we should not forget nor neglect to share them with our children (viewer discretion is advised for some of the movies & may not be appropriate for children).
Here is a list of recommended movies to check out:
"Black Force"
"Dolemite"
"Black Shampoo"
"Superfly"
"Cleopatra Jones"
"Sheba Baby"
"Black Caesar"
"Black Belt Jones"
"Dolemite 2"
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